


On the radar

by JaqofSpades



Series: Into Focus [2]
Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-19
Updated: 2012-10-19
Packaged: 2017-11-16 14:40:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/540564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaqofSpades/pseuds/JaqofSpades
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jackie has a radar for these things.  Maybe it's body language or pheromones, maybe it's extra-sensory whatever, but she just can just tell, okay? She knows when a guy likes her, knew about Logan's little sophomore, saw Jane and Wallace coming a mile away. Weevil and Veronica, though. No one sets off her radar like they do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the radar

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story in the Into Focus universe; a series of stand alone oneshots that fit together to tell the story of Senator Veronica Kane, private investigator Eli Navarro, and their long and complicated relationship, as witnessed by the people around them.

*

Jackie has a radar for these things. Maybe it's body language or pheromones, maybe it's extra-sensory whatever, but she just can just tell, okay? She knows when a guy likes her, knew about Logan's little sophomore, saw Jane and Wallace coming a mile away.

Weevil and Veronica, though.

No one sets off her radar like they do.

Wallace can say what he likes, but they are _not_ platonic. Veronica practically owns the land of denial, and she's damn good at hiding things, but when it comes to Weevil … she likes to keep him in her line of sight. He swaggers up when anyone seems to threaten her. They walk off to find a quiet spot to talk, and lean into each other to share their secrets. They can snark at each other all they like, but Jackie can see it. They might even be ignorant of all the little ways their bodies are yelling “I want you.”

They weren't even speaking to each other when she noticed it first. Day two at a new school, and the gangkids were mixing it up in the hall right in front of her new locker. She picked the leader straight away – it's not hard, they had to check with him before they could take a fucking breath – and she tried not to look too long because she's done with the cocky, dangerous types. But it didn't matter, because he wasn't looking at her – he was watching a skinny little blonde stomp past and the tension between them was so thick, her radar shot straight over 'vaguely interested' to 'red fucking hot'.

The girl had her game face on, and it wasn't just your average popular girl schtick, objecting to the wrong guy checking her out. There was something deeper between them, something gone wrong - she was hurt, and mad. He knew it, too, and his eyes slid up and down her body in a slow, heated onceover just designed to piss her off. Sure enough, the girl's jaw clenched with rage, her obvious fury making the group of boys hoot and holler their approval. The main guy, though, was only pretending to enjoy it, and was still watching as she walked down the hall.

A sweet black kid had been hanging round, trying to impress her, but his smile dimmed when she asked about them. 

“That's my homegirl, Veronica. Biker dude is Weevil. He's bad news.” Wallace's frown told her not to ask again, and that he didn't understand what was going on between them. She didn't understand either, back then, but she wasn't wrong. Just yet to be schooled in how fucked up things could get in Neptune. 

Veronica, the gossips fell over themselves to tell her, used to be Logan Echolls' girlfriend – until Logan stabbed Weevil's best buddy Felix and ignited a race war. Veronica's with Duncan Kane now “but last year? She was real close with Weevil, if you know what I mean. She's kind of slutty,” Tammy Lenz had told her in home room. And that was the nicest thing anyone had said.

A month on, and Jackie had a whole range of labels she liked to use for Veronica, but 'slut' wasn't one of them. Controlling bitch, perhaps, because of the way all the boys jumped anytime Veronica barked an order, and the Little Miss Machiavelli for the way she liked to manipulate everyone around her, but not 'slut'. She's too busy being Duncan Kane's perfect little girlfriend for that, even if Jackie can see how much that's beginning to chafe. She's this close to flirting with Weevil just to piss Veronica off.

And it would work, too, because their stony glares had given way to stern nods, and then these barbed conversations loaded with so much sexual innuendo they made her blush. She's not the only one who's noticed, either – Wallace's eyes flick between them and she could see the worry there. She put it to him straight.

“Are they having a thing?”

“Who? Veronica and Weevil?” he spluttered, but he's not as surprised as he should be. “She's with Duncan, Jackie,” he insisted, as if that was the end of it. Jackie shrugged in capitulation – safer not messing with other people's business anyway – and changed the topic.

Two days later, Wallace is watching them again, and this time he asks her. “What made you think that? Something must have – I've noticed you pick up on stuff,” he said, and bumped her with his shoulder. “What gives?”

“I've just got this radar for stuff,” she confessed, and tried to make light of it. “It's probably nothing. But ...”

She ended up telling him everything – the look in the corridor, the mocking way Weevil blew kisses to Veronica in biology, the intimate little conversation she'd walked in on one day in the AV room. She'd opened the door expecting the room to be empty, and they'd been standing close together in the back corner. They hadn't jumped apart, exactly, but the way Weevil had eyeballed her made it clear he thought she was interrupting something.

Veronica was a much cooler customer. “Sorry to hold you up. We're done now,” she smiled, waving her hand at the equipment. “We'll talk more about that project next week,” she directed at Weevil, and he scowled, unimpressed, all the while steering Veronica out of the room with one hand low on her back.

“I'm not saying that something's going on,” Jackie stressed as Wallace's face grew angry. “It's just – they like each other. That's all.”

“You think,” Wallace retorted tightly, then looked past her, eyes hardening. Veronica and Weevil were walking towards them, her shoulder pushing at his, heads inclined together as they looked at a mobile phone. “Not like she'd actually tell me anything. I'm always the last to know with Veronica,” he snorted.

“I dunno. Maybe Duncan Kane will be,” Jackie said, making Wallace bury his head in his hands with an angry groan.

“Shit! Women and their fucking secrets, leading us all around by the nose!” he spat, and she should have known something was going on with him. But like everyone else, she assumed it was all about Veronica, and when Wallace leaves, it's one more reason to hate she-who-must-have-everything.

*

She was almost sorry when Veronica's world fell apart. (Again, Wallace would have reminded her, if he hadn't been in Chicago refusing to talk to either one of them.) She was sorry, except that Terrence was facing murder charges, and Veronica wasn't the most hated girl in school anymore. She was.

But Neptune turns on a dime and when the gossip moved from “Duncan Kane knocked up Meg Manning” to “Duncan's dumped Veronica,” she wanted to reach past the Wallace-shaped gap and offer the other girl some sort of comfort. But she's Veronica – busy, and distant, and made of ice, so Jackie just muttered a few words and then retreated back into her stupor.

And then Wallace came back, and he was in trouble, and this time it was Jackie doing favours for Veronica (even if she told herself it was for Wallace). Hooking Rashard Rucker so easily was a huge ego boost, but he's handsy and arrogant, making Wallace looked like a prince in comparison. She never got the chance to tell him, though, because Wallace was already dating sweet little Jane Kuhne and Jackie could see the sparks between them.

She had missed her chance, and it hurt, but it made her realise something. You had to be a good person to keep a good person in your life. And she liked the irony of trying to be a better person just as the whole world was treating her like scum. Avoiding the pitchforks and burning faggots is exhausting, though, so she nearly misses the day when Weevil turns up at school minus his entourage, and plus some nasty bruises. A coup had taken place, and Weevil was no longer king of the PCH.

The next time she saw him was as she was bracing herself for the dunk tank at the Winter Carnival. She blinked, and smiled in spite of herself, because … _damn_. Without the straggly goatee and with actual hair on his head, he was delicious. Tempting enough to make her ignore his history with Veronica and the reek of unfinished business between them. She would invite him to sit at their table for lunch, she decided. Maybe just flirt a little, to see if he had given up on Veronica yet.

They set her straight a few days later. She was cutting behind the school bus, fumbling to find her first period homework, when she caught them facing off in front of a giant car she didn't recognise.

“Is it your undying love for me or good old-fashioned lust?” Weevil was asking, voice raw with suggestion. Jackie was busy not choking, but the sudden flare of panic on Veronica's face still grabbed her attention.

“Que?” she asked, hand behind her ear in exaggerated disbelief.

“That kept you from turning me in?” Weevil finished. He was daring her to admit it, Jackie thought, unable to stop the smirk spreading across her face. His rueful smile was saying he didn't think she ever would, but he was willing to go out on a limb anyway. That's how much he liked her. 

Jackie held her breath waiting for Veronica to respond, willing her to take the chance. But Lil Miss Impenetrable was being asked to talk about her feelings, clearly number one on the list of things Veronica Mars did not do. 

And Veronica Mars has an answer for everything, even the one question she had been avoiding all year.

“Love … of rollercoasters. And hatred of anything that requires me to tie a sweater over my shoulders and be at sea with my classmates. Nothing to do with you,” she trilled, and it was almost convincing. Only the shellshocked look in Veronica's eyes told Jackie that she wouldn't be letting this go, that she'd be thinking about it a lot. She was probably thinking about it already, Jackie realised, as Veronica's usual efficient gait gave way to a slower, more considered pace as she walked away.

Weevil stared after Veronica for several long seconds, and he was still smiling when Jackie emerged from behind the bus several carefully-judged minutes later. 

Jane and Wallace were being sickeningly cute at lunch the next day when Veronica's eyes fixed on something over Jackie's shoulder, and stayed there right up until the moment Jackie could feel a warm presence hovering at her back. She pretended to be oblivious, hiding her smile when Veronica slid along the bench seat to make space for Weevil.

He sat so close she had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. Be nice, she lectured herself. Try not to stare. They've got no idea how entertaining they are.

Small talk with Weevil, however, was harder than she would have guessed. He didn't talk. Instead, he watched Veronica, and he wasn't even bothering to hide it anymore. His eyes were eating her up, and when she caught him, he just smirked. It happened three or four times in the course of lunch, and when Veronica finally raised an annoyed eyebrow, he whispered something into her ear that made her bite her lip in shock. He swaggered off after that, and Veronica ignored everyone else to watch him go, finger tapping absently at her lower lip.

She looked torn, and Jackie gets it. Weevil's not PCH anymore. He's just a guy, making it clear he's way into her. And she's been battling temptation for a long time now.

It was excruciating to watch.

*

“Hi Weevil. How's your bio homework coming along?”

She kept it casual and friendly, because she didn't want Weevil to think she's coming on to him. She just wanted Veronica to see them talking, and jump to conclusions.

To jump, basically.

“Homework? There was homework?” He was joking, or at least she hoped he was, so she simply rolled her eyes.

“The rat dissection. We're supposed to write it up. By Friday.”

She was planning on offering him her help, but then her plan backfired in the most wonderful way.

“Hey, V! The bio homework – you done it?”

Jackie busied herself with packing away her books, trying not to smirk.

“Last night's stakeout was cut short, so no biology yet. Maybe tonight's adulterous couple will be more considerate,” Veronica snarked.

“I'll come with you to keep an eye on the adulterers if you do my homework,” Weevil offered, forcing Jackie to swallow her snort.

“Ah, no. You'll keep me company while I give you tips on how to do a scientifically valid lab report while simultaneously bringing down the wrath of Mrs Hill on Mr Hill's cheating heart. Or possibly, his penis. Bet she has plans for _that_.”

“I'd say 'it's a date,' but … you're scary, chica!”

“Don't lie, you like it!” Veronica purred, half joking.

Weevil's not, though. 

“Oh, yeah,” he said, and that silky voice is so full of lust that Jackie's panties just about ended up on the floor. Veronica stared at him, then licked her lips with a tiny moan that probably wasn't meant to be audible.

Jackie swallowed and pushed herself up out of her seat. She needed to get gone, or she was going to push them into a closet together. She flipped her hand in a casual goodbye, but they didn't even notice.

They didn't see anyone except each other, and she gave it a week _at most_ before they were heating up the sheets.

*

Nothing happens, and for the first time, she wondered if she was wrong.

He still comes up to her in the hallways to speak straight into her ear, and she still breaks off halfway through a conversation to give him a slow, mysterious smile that looks suspiciously like “meet me in the broom cupboard in ten minutes”.

That's how they've always been, Wallace protested. “That's just them. Besides, I'd rather think about you, baby,” and his tongue was in her ear and … yeah. They were back together and suddenly, keeping tabs on Weevil and Veronica wasn't the most exciting thing in her world.

Maybe her radar was jammed, Wallace liked to tease, and she'd smile mysteriously and tell him that nah, they it was just a glitch. Maybe Weevil and Veronica were the world's biggest flirts, and that's what set it off. She didn't really believe it, though, and couldn't help but think it would be nice to prove him wrong. Nice wasn't the word, because she'll never forget the look on Wallace's face.

They'd been looking for little lunchtime privacy, and her clever, clever boy just happened to have copied the key to the filing room. Jackie rewarded him with a kiss just inside the door, and they were making their way to the little room in back when they heard it.

“Dios, mama. Por favor, V. Por favor ...”

Wallace froze on the spot, but Jackie tiptoed over to peek through the little window near the top of the door, and … holy shit. “Holy. Shit!” she gasped, and then clapped her hand over her mouth, but not before Wallace's feet made the decision for him, and his nose was pressed up beside hers.

Weevil was sitting in a chair, stark naked, and Veronica was kneeling up over him, hovering. Lowering herself a little, then pulling away to bite down on his neck, or drag her tongue over his nipples. He was straining up, desperate to be inside of her, and she was _laughing_.

The stream of Spanish continues, and she doesn't understand every word, but it's clear Veronica has got the boy begging. “Por favor” turns into “ahora, chica, ahora” and then “Maliciosa!” as she brushes against him, circles around him, even takes him in a little before lifting herself away again. It wasn't until he draped his arms around her neck and slowly but steadily pushed her down that the wicked giggle gave way to a long, drawn out cry. Within seconds she was the one pleading, whimpering and jerking as he seized her hips to take over the pace. 

Jackie glanced at Wallace and had to fight back a giggle of her own. His mouth was hanging open, one hand shading his eyes even as they bugged with disbelief. “Outta here!” he mouthed, jerking his head towards the door, and she nodded, because he was kind of right. They shouldn't have been there.

They sat at a table in the quad in the blazing heat of the afternoon, mouths agape and pulses racing.

“Should have known she'd make a key for herself,” Wallace said eventually, and she winced at the guilt in his voice.

“We couldn't have known anyone would be there,” Jackie protested, then couldn't help the smile curling her mouth. “Who knew white girl could make a man beg like that!”

He paled and looked over his shoulder before swinging back to her.

“Jackie. There was no begging. In fact, there was no man! We heard nothing. We saw nothing. And until Veronica tells me something's going on – it never happened!”

Jackie rolls her eyes. “Oh, please. I didn't need to see that to know something was going on. Something's being going on for months, Wallace. This is just the universe giving us the great, big 'I told you so'.”

“Well, until the universe has to deal with the Queen of Denial herself, it can shut the fuck up,” he hissed.

Jackie blinked at the anger in his voice, then took another look at him – not just angry, but hurt. Trust issues, she realised. Extra thorny when it came to Veronica, and when you put Weevil in the mix …

“Wallace. She'll tell you when she's ready. She's only just figured it out herself, I think.” Jackie tucked herself in under his arm and lay her head on his shoulder. “Sure, right now it's mostly about them getting it on, but it's more than that. I know it is. Maybe this is her happy ending,” she said softly, poking him in the side. 

He snorted, but she felt some of the tension leave his body. “That what your radar is saying?”

“Yup. Happy endings all around. I guarantee it,” she had said, sealing the promise with a kiss. 

*

If only she'd known what she was getting herself into, Jackie thinks, watching Veronica slump into a chair after their fifth night of wooing donors up and down the state. Eleven years later, and she's still in charge of happy endings – it's actually printed on her business card, she likes to joke. 

This time round, it's going to take a while. It's proving to be their trickiest campaign yet, what with the old money heading for the hills when the scandal broke. The newly-divorced Senator was as poor as a churchmouse, practically destitute after walking away from the Kane gazillions. But she had refused to walk away from her constituents, so here they were, fundraising.

The base was different now. Not so uncomfortable with a brown face or the wrong sort of accent. Veronica's always been one for hiring the underdog, so when the truth came out and the silver spoon set deserted them in droves … her staffers just shrugged and went to work on a different crowd. It helped that they could actually relax and be themselves, even if they were only just getting used to who Veronica turned out to be. She still works too hard, and ignores everything but the goal ahead, but the icy facade has been abandoned along with the overbearing inlaws. She laughs now, and isn't afraid to let slip the little details of her not-so-boring past. She's Veronica Mars again, and it's glorious. 

Eli is still convinced he's a liability, and Veronica is worried about what the whole situation is doing to little Leticia, but no one's denying they've done the right thing. Technically, the relationship isn't public yet, but they're not bothering to hide it, either. Everyone notices Veronica's secret smile when he slinks into the back of the room, and the way Eli slips a possessive arm around her waist when they walk together. And yesterday, Jackie couldn't stop the laugh when he called her over with a jerk of his head, and they wandered off to find a quiet spot to talk.

“What?” Eli's niece Ophelia had asked when she caught the smothered sound of mirth, and Jackie told her about the way it used to be, back at Neptune High, watching them dance around each other, and knowing – just _knowing_ – that they were right for each other.

She might be Dr Jackie these days, might have written the definitive tome on body language, but she still calls it her radar. And no one sets it off the way they do. 

_fin_

 

Disclaimer: This fanfiction was written for personal enjoyment rather than profit. No infringement on the rights of the intellectual property owners is intended.


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